Racist overtones of the pejorativization of the word "liberal"?

[Tamyrlin79]

Is it just me or is the flavor and invective behind calling someone liberal akin to "niggerlover"? It's an earlier term propounded by the same groups of people who now demonize liberals, and add that to the fact that many in the South are starting to say "it was filled with 'Democrats'" as a way of saying that there were a lot of Black people at a place/event. So, using liberal in the "niggerlover" sense is quite in character for these people...

[NYCGirl]

1. I think that's a bit of a stretch. (eom)

NT

[jdj]

10. I'd say it's closer to calling someone a homo or commie pinko faggot.

[Taxloss]

2. It's revolting how the right wing has co-opted "liberal"

But it's not as revolting as racist terminology. Simple fact.

You aren't about to be lynched, for a start.

[Tamyrlin79]

5. "aren't about to be lynched..."

You don't think they don't want to lynch you? Give it time. The "Freedom Camps" will come.

As the wicked witch of the West said, "All in good time, my pretty... All in good time."

[Taxloss]

7. Well, if they want to lynch me, they have to fly to London

And I appreciate your point, these are frightening times, but I don't feel developing a persecution complex is the way to go about it. You can turn other people into liberals; the civil rights leaders couldn't turn whites into blacks.

Your country is too strong to go down the road of camps quietly.

[Bluebear]

3. You are in the belly of the beast so I defer to you.

Molly Ivins pointed out quite a while ago the way the word is spat out represents something evil to these people, this could be a facet of it.

[Taxloss]

4. Who's that in your little ID pic?

eom

[Bluebear]

6. That's the lovely Michelle Malkin

Who thinks that the WWII internment camps were a GOOD thing.

[Taxloss]

9. Oh, HER

That pic looks like a Thai internet bride who has just discovered that her South Dakotan "husband" isn't a corporate lawyer and in fact drives a truck and lives in a trailer.

[DrWeird]

8. Not just you.

It's always said in that same "card-carrying member of the ACLU" growl.

[MrSlayer]

11. Yes.

Without a doubt. Those very terms are used in many conversations I have with some conservatives.

[starroute]

12. I'm convinced that to those people liberal often means "Jewish"

As in "liberal media." Or "liberal elite."

I was getting a lot of creepy vibes at the time of the Republican convention in New York, so I started reading up on right-wing conspiracy theory. And the more I did, the more of a feeling I got that there's an awful lot of classic anti-Semitism out there, bubbling along just barely beneath the surface.

For those people, "Middle America" doesn't just refer to Kansas. In their worldview, there's a parasitic elite of Jews and snooty New Englanders and a parasitic underclass of blacks and immigrants, both of which are conspiring to destroy the real Americans in the middle.

So in their mouths, "liberal" means something more like "evil overlords."

I'm still wondering how we can deal with something like that.

[MrSlayer]

13. Of course, it all goes hand-in-hand.

Racist thinkers believe that Jews exploit Africans against Caucasions. They also believe that Democrat and liberal are synonomous with giving miorities more than their fare share. WP groups consider the Jews to be lesser than the African and more deserving of death. "The niggers are animals but the Jew is the devil." is usually the quote. I've yet to meet the racist that likes Jews but hates Africans. At the end of the day the basis is hatred and racism against all who are not white.